Silent night, bloody-carnage-from-hell-kept-from-U.S.-theatrical-distribution-for-more-than-a-decade night! Our friends at Cinefamily have accomplished the impossible yet again. Our country — known for its spree-shooting high school students, voyeuristic prison reality shows and ever-encroaching all-around police state legislation — has been deprived of seeing “the most controversial Japanese film of the millennium” on a movie screen (save for one solitary preview honoring director Kinji Fukasaku in 2001) until now. Battle Royale tells the tale of a dystopian society run rampant with teenybopper violence. (“At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act …”) The solution? Relocate the kids to an island where it's literally a game of kill or be killed. A “masterpiece of mayhem” starring megastar Beat Takeshi as the beyond-icy “7th-Grade Class B Teacher,” it's based on the controversial novel by Koshun Takami. Methinks this carnage-laden classic might make the Occupy Colleges movement reconsider its pledge of nonviolence — especially considering Gov. Brown's new plan to slash yet another BILLION dollars from California's budget, largely through cuts to higher education. Cinefamily, 611 N. Fairfax Ave.; Sat.-Thurs., Dec. 24-29, 4:45, 7:30 & 10:15 p.m. (except Tues., Dec. 27, 3:30 p.m. only); $10, free for members. (323) 655-2510, cinefamily.org.

Dec. 24-28, 2011

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